The World’s Largest Pistachio is an eye-popping popular attraction at McGinn’s PistachioLand. It has become one of New Mexico’s weirdest roadside attractions.
It looms over the dusty landscape north of Alamogordo. The colossal pistachio nut stands 30 feet tall, weighs a staggering 20,500 pounds, and is painted in shades of cream, green, and purple. Behind the giant nut, however, is a tale that is more poignant than its sheer size suggests.
It isn’t a roadside gimmick, but a memorial built by a son who grieved for his father, Tom McGinn, who transformed barren desert into a sprawling pistachio farm.
In 1980, McGinn, a food industry aficionado, moved his family from California to the Chihuahuan Desert. He dreamed of growing pistachios in the desert, which many would have considered downright crazy.
Undaunted by the prospect of failure, McGinn planted his first trees on what was then an empty scrubland. It took eight years for the first harvest.
Since then, he quietly built his dream into a flourishing agricultural operation.
Today, the orchard boasts more than 12,000 pistachio trees, alongside a vineyard and winery.
But when he died in 2007, his son Tim decided to continue his father’s legacy. “I worked with my dad here for 28 years,” Tim later recalled. “I wanted a way to memorialize him.”
He drew inspiration from his father’s pistachio farm. Instead of erecting a traditional memorial at a cemetery, Tim believed his father belonged where he had spent decades pursuing his dream.
With the help of a local builder, he built a huge pistachio. Four months later, the World’s Largest Pistachio was unveiled in 2008.
A bronze plaque at the base honors Tom with a fitting tribute: “Tom dreamed big, expected big, and accomplished big things. He would have said the monument is not big enough!”
And the public reaction was almost immediate. The first curious motorist, only an hour after the scaffolding was removed, stopped to take a photograph.
Today, the giant nut has become a favorite roadside landmark, attracting hundreds of thousands of visitors each year before they make their way to the otherworldly white dunes of nearby White Sands National Park.
But it is only the beginning. Inside the country store, visitors can have a gastronomic delight, sampling an astonishing range of pistachio flavors.
One flavor is even credited to Kelly Osbourne. Then there is the homemade pistachio ice cream, estate wine from the on-site Arena Blanca Winery, and golf-cart tours through the sprawling pistachio farm.
The giant nut itself is enough of a celebrity attraction, and then the guestbook.
Ozzy Osbourne and his children have visited the place for a television special. He even created their own pistachio flavors.
Today Show personalities Al Roker and Matt Lauer had also stopped by. And Norman Reedus of The Walking Dead and comedian Larry the Cable Guy have also posed beside the giant roadside icon.
As motorists cruise along Highway 54, they do not simply drive past. They pull over to see what seems to be a nuclear-sized snack rising from the desert.
Visitors take a selfie. And spare a moment in the place that reminds one of a man whose dream became one of New Mexico’s weirdest and most unforgettable roadside sights.
